Notes from a train somewhere in Essex!

Good evening dear friends! I am blogging from my phone for the first time so have no idea what it will look like! I have been in London today. More precisely, I have been at Loop, taking a class covering all aspects of colourwork. Very happy that I will be able to finally tick this off my knitting resolutions come December!  Magic loop and continental knitting? No problem! Report later in the week. xxx

Sew much fun!

No knitting this week as my time has been taken up with a sewing project. I have been making a free motion stitched cushion as a gift for a Ravelry friend who was visiting from the USA. Katharine and I have met up in London a couple of times before, but this was the first time she had visited Norwich. We had a lovely (but far too short!) time together. If you follow me on Instagram, there are a couple of photos there of our adventures. We descended on Snoopydog yesterday for a nattter (no knitting as we were talking too much!) and enjoyed a meal together in the evening. I shall be seeing Katharine again next Sunday as I am taking a class at Loop. Anyway, back to the cushion! I am just thrilled with how it turned out and it was hard to give it away! I have plans to make some more as gifts for yarn-loving friends. Enjoy! xxx

Happy Things

1. The winter sunshine creating a disco ball effect in the lounge.

2. Using my Christmas tree spatula when baking stollen muffins. (Recipe here.)

3. My Ripple Cushion getting 1000 downloads on Ravelry!

4. Sewing the January block - Churn Dash - in the Sugar Block Club.

5. Spotting the first snowdrop in the garden.

6. Finally getting a couple of photos of two finished knits - my Kylbeg cowl and Once Upon a ... Cowl. I am planning on knitting up matching mitts with the leftovers of each, so will hold fire with the patterns for now.

7. Receiving a yarn colour card from Yarn Stories. The Once Upon a ... Cowl above is knit using three shades  from their DK range and now my head is buzzing with other colour combinations!

8. A vase of local daffodils bringing their own little bit of sunshine to the kitchen!

What's made you happy this week? xxx

Dabbling!

It's been a funny old week. I've found it really hard going back to work, I hate the dark mornings! I have become a fair weather walker and hung up my walking boots until it's lighter again. Mr JK commented to me that FitBit must wonder if I'm still alive, my weekly step total is so low!! Today, however, for the first time in ages, I managed to get my step count over 10,000. Woohoo! It has been glorious here so we headed up to the North Norfolk coast for a walk. One of our favourite spots is Wells-next-the-Sea. You can park in the town and then walk down the beach road following the channel out to the sea, before arriving at the beach.

There was a steady stream of walkers all with the same idea as us, but the beach is huge so there's plenty of space for everyone. I love it there, with its cheery backdrop of beach huts and pine trees.

Then it's up through the sand dunes and through the pine woods back to the beach road. A most pleasant way to pass a couple of hours.

I was able to knit during the journey there and back and managed to get a few more round of a sock done. This is an alternative version of a sock pattern I'm hoping to release soon, discovered through a happy mistake by one of my test knitters!

After Flo's not so subtle hint to get moving on the Cosy blanket, I have finished the second of the six colour repeats. My aim is to get one done a week, although that is pushing it! I laid it out to photograph its progress and Florence did her best to try and convince me that it's perfectly big enough for her, thank you very much! 

Yesterday I learnt how to sew a Japanese apron. I bought the fabric and bias binding last year when I first saw the class advertised. I really like the style and plan on wearing it when spinning to stop my clothes from getting covered in fluff! It was my first time sewing bias binding and I'm really happy with the end result. It's a bit weird to put on and take off to start with - you feel like you're tying yourself in knots! But I think I've got it sussed now! (If I don't blog next weekend, you'll know that I'm tangled up in my apron, so send help!)

I haven't picked out my fabric yet for the Sugar Block club, but am planning on doing so this week. I'll show you as soon as I've decided! Have a good week and stay warm. I'm not looking forward to the cold weather that's forecast after weeks of unseasonably warm temperatures. It's going to come as a bit of a shock! xxx

Caught!

Red pawed!

This was what greeted me when I came home from school today. Florence had obviously decided that the sofa wasn't comfortable enough, or perhaps she was a little chilly. So she dragged the crochet Cosy blanket out of its bag and made herself a snuggly den! Got to love that little cat. She just loves all yarny things. Best I crochet faster! xxx

Briefly on a Sunday afternoon

It's grey and wet here, just adding to my mood as I ponder the end of the holidays and the return to work tomorrow. I know that I shouldn't complain as I've had two weeks off school, but I could quite easily get used to this not working lark, spending my days at home with yarn and fabric! It has been a lovely break, stretching over those long holiday weekends when Mr JK didn't have to work either. We quite lost track of what day it was! 

The past few days, I frogged several projects that I had fallen out of love with, as well as finishing a couple. Mr JK's Matchday socks certainly have brought Norwich City luck since I finished knitting them as they have won both their matches since! I think he will have to wear them every time they play from now on!

A post-Christmas catch up with Snoopydog brought a whole plethora of goodies - project bags, yarn, books, needles, notions and a delightful mug whose sentiments I echo entirely! Snoops and I both agreed that knitting from stash is the way forward in 2016, so it will be interesting to see who leads who astray when we are next together at a yarny event! Thank you so much for all these gorgeous gifts!

As you can see from the photo above, I was totally spoilt with knitterly goodness with all these birthday gifts from Snoops. The yarn on the right is Socks Yeah! from Rachel Coopey and I am itching to cast on with it. It's a relatively new yarn and comes in a range of gorgeous muted colours. Just a shame that I'm on a yarn diet now so I can't buy any more!!

I love this pretty project bag (you can find others here if you'd like one of your own!) and have already got a project lined up for it. Two yummy skeins and a book completed my Christmas goodies from Snoops. I find myself drawn more and more to Rachel Coopey's designs and plan on knitting some of her socks this year.

New projects have been cast on for a new knitting year. In the ThreBagFull group on Ravelry, we have a couple of fun KALs going on right now. One is a year long Sock Challenge and the other is a season of selfish knitting. So I have two pairs of socks cast on as well as a cowl. The second pair of socks are being knit in the ball of yarn that has been in my stash the longest. I had to dive deep to find that one! Take a look...

I've been indulging in a bit of early morning hooking in bed the past few days, but this morning proceedings were interrupted by Flo, who not only tried to snuggle into the blanket-in-progress, but also wanted to nuzzle against my hands. The Cosy blanket, from Attic24, is growing steadily. My aim is to have finished the next set of colours by the weekend.

I plan on carrying on improving my sewing skills this year and came across this blog today. I like the idea of sewing a block a month. It feels quite achieveable and the instructions look clear. So I reckon that I'll mull over fabric choices this week and make a start next weekend. Do you fancy joining me? Go on, it'll be fun! Catch up again soon! xxx

Magic View - Plant - Foliage

The latest in a series of posts looking at the photo recognition trickery on Flickr. Today we're looking at foliage. Enjoy! xxx